Bullard v. State

530 S.E.2d 265, 242 Ga. App. 843, 2000 Fulton County D. Rep. 1251, 2000 Ga. App. LEXIS 261
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 1, 2000
DocketA99A1695
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 530 S.E.2d 265 (Bullard v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bullard v. State, 530 S.E.2d 265, 242 Ga. App. 843, 2000 Fulton County D. Rep. 1251, 2000 Ga. App. LEXIS 261 (Ga. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinions

Andrews, Presiding Judge.

Lester and Carol Bullard appeal from the judgment entered after a jury found them guilty of two counts of Medicaid fraud and one count of false writings. Because we conclude there was no reversible error, we affirm the judgment.

Lester and Carol Bullard, husband and wife, were accused of submitting fraudulent claims to the Georgia Department of Medical Assistance and accepting payments of approximately $340,763 to which they were not entitled. The indictments alleged that Lester Bullard, a physician, and his wife Carol, who also worked in his medical office, solicited children who were Medicaid recipients to come to their medical office for the checkups required to attend a camp program. The Bullards then used the children’s Medicaid numbers to bill the Georgia Department of Medical Assistance for psychotherapy services for the children, which were not provided. The Bullards were also accused of putting false documents in the files of these children and submitting these documents to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Attorney General to try to justify the billings.

1. In their first enumeration, the Bullards claim that the trial [844]*844court erred when it denied Carol Bullard’s motion for directed verdict on the two Medicaid fraud counts because there was no evidence that she participated in the Medicaid fraud. We disagree.

Contrary to the Bullards’ argument that Carol Bullard had no role in the recruitment of the Medicaid children to the office, there is a letter from Lester Bullard to Pam Dixon, who worked in their office as a phlebotomist technician, in which he writes of a meeting between her and Carol Bullard. At that meeting, Carol Bullard and Dixon agreed that Dixon’s daily assignment was to schedule 50 additional Medicaid children every week to come in for health checks. Lester Bullard wrote that he and Carol Bullard were requesting that Dixon keep written reports on the number of patients called and submit the written report to Carol Bullard each week.

Even if this reference to her involvement in getting as many Medicaid recipients as possible into the office was not sufficient to show Carol Bullard’s active participation in the Medicaid fraud scheme, there was additional testimony that Carol Bullard was present in the office and participated in the fraudulent scheme. She was in the office when the camp kids started coming in, and her role was to direct and organize the procedures for examining the children. The phlebotomist technician working in the office at the time testified that Carol Bullard told her she must stay and help with the examinations of the camp kids, who usually came in late in the day. Carol Bullard also would occasionally perform the physical examinations of the children.

The Bullards claim there was no evidence that Carol Bullard actively participated in the actual billing of the claims, because she did not take over the billing department until after the fraudulent claims were billed. That is not dispositive in light of the evidence discussed above. Moreover, the evidence is undisputed that Carol Bullard actively participated in creating forms to put in the files of the Medicaid recipients after the investigation began.

2. The Bullards also claim the trial court should have granted Carol Bullard’s motion for directed verdict because she is not a “provider” under OCGA § 49-4-146.1 (b) (2), which' states that it is unlawful “[f]or any provider knowingly and willfully to accept medical assistance payments to which he is not entitled or in an amount greater than that to which he is entitled, or knowingly and willfully to falsify any report or document required under this article.” “Provider” is defined as “an actual or prospective provider of medical assistance under this chapter.” OCGA § 49-4-146.1 (a) (7).

The State points out that Carol Bullard’s wide range of activities and supervisory role in the medical office made her a party to the crime, and we agree. Even assuming Carol Bullard cannot be considered a provider, OCGA § 16-2-20 (a) states, in pertinent part, that a [845]*845person may be found guilty as a party to a crime if she intentionally aids or abets in the commission of the crime or intentionally advises, encourages, hires, counsels or procures another to commit the crime. Thus,

[pjarticipants to a crime may be convicted although they are not the actual perpetrator of the crime. Mere presence at the scene is not sufficient to convict one of being a party to a crime, but criminal intent may be inferred from conduct before, during, and after the commission of the crime.

(Punctuation omitted.) Sands v. State, 262 Ga. 367, 368 (2) (418 SE2d 55) (1992). Here, the evidence as discussed above was sufficient for a jury to find that Carol Bullard was guilty as a party to the crime of Medicaid fraud beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).

3. Next, the Bullards contend the trial court erred in granting the State’s motion in limine and excluding the testimony of 22 witnesses on behalf of Lester Bullard and one witness and medical records on behalf of Carol Bullard.

(a) Lester Bullard’s witnesses. The evidence at the hearing was that Lester Bullard’s defense counsel faxed a list of 22 witnesses to the State on the Saturday before trial began on Tuesday. The State objected to these witnesses, stating that there was no justification for it and the State would be prejudiced because there was not enough time to interview them all before trial. Defense counsel stated that he had just found out about the witnesses “last week.” The trial court granted the State’s motion in limine, finding “objective bad faith” in serving the State with a list of twenty-two witnesses one working day before trial. The trial court also found that allowing these witnesses to testify would prejudice the State’s case.

OCGA § 17-16-6 provides that the court may, upon a showing of prejudice and bad faith, prohibit the defendant from calling the undisclosed witnesses.

In reviewing a trial court’s decision on a motion in limine, we construe the evidence most favorably to uphold the findings and judgment, and must adopt the trial court’s findings on disputed facts and credibility unless they are clearly erroneous. Further, since the trial court sits as the trier of facts, its findings will not be disturbed if there is any evidence to support them.

(Punctuation omitted.) Davis v. State, 226 Ga. App. 83, 84 (1) (485 SE2d 508) (1997).

Here, there was evidence that the court had put the case on call [846]*846for trial at least two months earlier. Defense counsel did not have a sufficient explanation as to why he waited to disclose the witnesses until just before the start of trial. Further, the trial court correctly concluded that it would now be very difficult for the State to interview 22 witnesses during trial.

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Presley v. State
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Bullard v. State
530 S.E.2d 265 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2000)

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Bluebook (online)
530 S.E.2d 265, 242 Ga. App. 843, 2000 Fulton County D. Rep. 1251, 2000 Ga. App. LEXIS 261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bullard-v-state-gactapp-2000.